My Favorites - Thai Recipes

The filling for these paper thin snacks is pork and carrot, the outer wrapper is spring roll paper. In the photograph you can see I layered the papers with slices of pineapple. The pineapple adds a sharpness to cut through the fatty taste of the papers, but also it keeps the papers apart so they don't stick together.

Inside these balls made from tapioca pearls, are chopped nuts and sliced preserved turnip. The turnip you can buy in packets from Asian grocers, it is thin sliced and preserved in salt and sugar. These are a tiny bit sweet and tangy, and should be eaten with bird chillies and fried garlic.

This pie originates from China, however my favorite type of this pie is the slightly salty, slightly sweet version with salty eggs inside they sell in Thailand. For this you will need salty eggs yolks which take 2-3 weeks to prepare. You will also need yellow beans which you can either buy in packets, or prepare from green beans - see the ingredients section of this site for instructions on both these items. The most difficult part of this is the pastry, which is made from multiple layers of 2 types of pastry.

A snack straight out of a Bangkok bakery, these little pies are ideal at this time of year with all the western parties. They are mini bite sized pies (pasties) filled with a Thai green curry pork. A mix of west and east. I used store bought puff pastry, but you can also make your own pastry, or even make proper puff pastry.

I have a small confession: this recipe was invented by MacDonalds in Thailand for their Thai customers. Thailand people eat mainly rice rather than bread and a burger with a bread bun isn't like their normal food. So MacDonalds invented the sticky rice burger, where the bun is replaced by as glutinous (sticky) rice patty. This recipe uses the same trick, if you are not familar with sticky rice, read the ingredients section of this site - you cannot use regular rice, and it must be prepared by steaming.

Preparation
1. Soak the sticky rice in water for 30 minutes ( 500 gms. sticky rice for water 1 ltr. )
2. After 30 minutes take the sticky rice and steam it for 30 minutes and leave it for a further 10 minutes to cool.
3. Pound the garlic and pepper corn, together and mix with chicken mince add salt, oyster sauce in and mix it up.
4. Mould the chicken mince into a hamburger shape and grill or fry it until cooked.
5. Mould sticky rice into flat round burger shapes, one for top and one for bottom.
6. Put the sticky rice and chicken burger together and put some salad vegetable in and sauce.
Make it as you would make a regular burger with all your favorite toppings.

Everyone in the world loves fried chicken and Thailand is no different. This recipe is how the Thais eat fried chicken, its slightly different from the KFC fast food you get worldwide, the flavour comes from the chicken not the coating! For healthy eating, it's better to mix this with one of the healthier Thai dishes, but its fine as a treat. For best results use a good quality corn fed chicken.

Preparation
1. Mix chicken legs with the salt & pepper and leave for 20 minutes.
2. After 20 minutes put on the legs steaming pan and steam for 30 minutes until cooked.
3. Take it of the steam leave it to cool, dry it with kitchen paper.
4. We will deep fry these legs, the best option is a deep fryer, but failing that a pan of oil will do.
5. Switch the fryer on at 170 degrees Celsius, (medium).
6. Break the egg and mix it, dip the chicken legs in the egg to coat them all over.
7. Dip the legs in the bread powder in the plastic bag and put chicken leg inside the bag, shake it until the crumbs stick to the chicken.
8. Deep fry them for 5 minutes until the crumbs are golden and brown.

A very popular dish, this is a quick easy to make stir fry of chicken and vegetables seasoned with cashew nuts. This is ideal as a side dish for Thai Fragrant Rice. The name break down as 'Guy' = chicken, 'pad' = fried, 'Med' = seed and 'Med Mamuang Hinmapan' means cashew nut. In Thai its just as long a name! ไก่ ผัด เม็ดมะม่วง หิมมะพานต์

Preparation
1. Chop the garlic into small pieces and put in a frying pan and fry it for a few seconds to release the garlic fragrance.
2. Chop the chicken breast into strips and add to the frying pan - stir until chicken is cooked.
3. Chop the onion, spring onion, red pepper and bamboo, into strips add in the pan.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients.
5. Cook for 2 minutes.

When I was a child we bought these jelly (jello) eggs, 1 baht for 2. We would crack open the egg and eat the jelly contents inside as a treat. They are eggs with the white and yolk removed, filled with jelly and coconut milk.
Thai jelly uses agar in place of gelatin and the jelly is very strong, more like a gum than a jelly. For this recipe we are using twice the amount of gelatin than is usual in order to simulate this strength. In the photograph we've removed the shell but they should be served still inside the shell with the hole hidden at the bottom in an egg cup, so that your guests can have the surprise of cracking open the egg and revealing the jelly inside.

Preparation
1. Mix the gelatin with the sugar and water in a boiling pan.
2. Heat until it just boils, then turn off the heat and leave to cool, the gelatin should be fully dissolved.
3. Take each egg, cut off the top to form a small hole using a sharp knife with a sawing action.
4. Empty the contents of the egg into a bowl you may have to break the yolk to get it out - we can use these to make an omelette later.
5. Fill and empty the eggs with water several times to clean them.
6. Boil some water in a kettle or pan and pour the boiling water into each egg and leave for a few minutes to sterilize the inside of the eggs.
7. When the gelatin mixture is cooler we can add the coconut milk and food colouring.
8. Add the coconut milk to the gelatin.
9. Separate the mixture into 3 bowls and colour each bowl with different food colourings. If you prefer you can make a clear jelly and a coconut jelly and make more layers.
10. It is then a simple matter of layering, pour a small layer of coloured jelly into the egg, place in a very cold fridge to set it quickly. Repeat for each layer in the egg until the egg is full of jelly.
11. Leave it in the fridge to set thoroughly.

Suggestions
These are ideal treats for easter in place of easter eggs.

I've done Thai suki-yaki before, this is the simpler Isan variant, which uses a tom-yum pan, and plenty of meat. The main elements of this dish are a meat plate, a vegetable plate, a soup and 3 seasoning sauces. The meat is cooked in the soup, together with the vegetables at the table.
To cook this dish, the soup pan needs to get hot. If that is not possible, then you should precook the meat and vegetables before bringing them to the table. The best option of all is a tom-yum pan without the centre hole (not like the one shown in the photograph), together with a proper charcoal or oil burner. You can then cook the meat on the centre plate to brown it first, them move it to the soup. Unfortunately for me, I only have a regular tom-yum pan and have to make do with cooking the meat in the soup.

Yes the title is correct! Thailand has influences from other countries and although not very common, we do have pizza! This is my own special recipe for Thai pizza. The main part of the pizza is Kaprow Kai - you can see this recipe elsewhere on this site, it is a spicy chicken mince and as a result the pizza is very unusual, with no tomato and a very different flavour. Use a mild cheese like gouda or cheddar so as not to smother the flavour of the mince.

Preparation of Base
1. Sift the flour into large mixing bowl.
2. Mix the yeast with 1 tablespoon of water and add to the flour.
3. Mix the sugar, salt, and oil, into the flour then add the rest of the water and kneed it until the flour is well mixed and soft.
4. Form the dough into a ball and cover with a wet towel to prevent a skin forming on the dough.
5. Leave for 30 minutes to let the yeast work and the dough rise.

Preparation For Spicy Chicken
1. Chop the chillies and garlic and fry in the oil.
2. Add the chicken mince and stir fry for 2 minutes.
3. Add the fish sauce, light soya sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar, and fry for 2 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and add the basil and stir.

Preparation For Pizza
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. Roll the dough into a pizza shape.
3. Put the base into the oven for 10 minutes to part cook it, this is important, the oil in the chicken will soak the bread base unless it is precooked.
4. Add the spicy chicken topping to the pizza and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5. Grate the cheese over the pizza and put it back in the oven cooking until the cheese is cooked (about 10 minutes).

This is perfect Thai farmer picnic food. Traditionally you keep the rice in a ga-tip and take a parcel of this grilled pork with you into the field. At lunch time you wash your hands (!), take a small ball of sticky rice in your fingertips and some of the meat and onions and eat. Perhaps with some cucumber and lettuce to add some extra green vegetables.

Preparation
1. Clean the pork and grill it until it is nearly cooked (we will cook it again later).
2. Slice the grilled cooked pork into strips.
3. Chop the garlic and chillies and put them into a sauce pan.
4. Add the flaked chillies, fish sauce, lemon juice, toasted rice, and water.
5. Add the pork into the pan with the other ingredients and cook over a high heat for an extra 1 minute.
6. Add the chopped coriander leaves, spring onion and mint at the end of cooking and mix thoroughly.

Preparation
1. Boil the water with chicken stock cube.
2. Mince the chicken together with the garlic, salt, and pepper corns in a blender.
3. Form into balls of meat with a teaspoon and drop into the boiling water.
4. Add the rice into the boiling pan and simmer for 15 minutes - stirring frequently.
5. Add the fish sauceand cook for a further 5 minutes.
6. Slice the ginger into fine slices and add to the soup.
7. When you serve the soup add the fried garlic, chilli flakes, sugar, a little vinegar and some coriander. Each guest can choose the flavourings they want to use.

If you don't have an open barbeque grill, this is the perfect way to cook ribs on the stove top. It's cooked in a boiling pan, sort of part-boil part-fry. It has a suprising semi-sweet, creamy rib taste, and is perfect to serve with rice. For this recipe its better to have cross cut ribs, ribs cut into short lengths, so that the sauce coats more of the meat.

Preparation
1. Pound the garlic in a mortar into a fine pulp.
2. Cut the pork ribs into short lengths.
3. Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a bowl to form a sauce.
4. Marinade the pork ribs in the sauce for at least 10 hours in the fridge.
5. Put all the mixture (including the sauce) into a boiling pan and simmer slowly for approximately 2 hours, until all the water has evaporated and only the oil remains.
6. The ribs are then ready to serve.

Another Thai variant of a Chinese dish. These are pork mushroom and carrot parcels, we called them 'Dim Sum' but our Chinese friends say the correct name for this type of starter is 'Chow Mei'. Served as a starter or a snack, each parcel is approximately 3cms across.

Preparation for Pastry
1. Put the salt, sugar, and flour into a bowl and mix it.
2. Beat the eggs together and mix into the flour.
3. Knead it until it forms a dough.
4. Set the dough aside for 20 minutes, it should be covered with a damp towel to prevent a skin forming.

Preparation for Filling
1. Soak the shitake mushroom for 5-10 minutes.
2. Chop shitake mushroom, carrots, spring onions, coriander leaves, and garlic,into small pieces. It is easier to blend it in a food processor.
3. Add the blended mix into the pork mince and add the egg, salt, oyster sauce and cassava starch, and mix well.

Assembly
1. Cut the dough into very small balls.
2. On a slightly oiled or floured surface, roll the dough into small circles (approximately 6cms diameter).
3. Spread the filling evenly over the dough.
4. Lift up the edges into of the dought to form the sides - this will squeeze the filling into the centre.
5. For best results pleat the edges of the pastry to form pleated sides of the parcels.

Cooking and Storing
Add this point you can freeze them on a floured tray, or cook them straight away.
To cook them, place them in a Chinese steamer and steam for 10 minutes.

Serve With
Mint
Coriander
Lettuce
Sour sauce

Suggestions
If you like hot spicy food, you can insert a piece of red or green chilli into the centre of the parcel before eating it.
Another recommended way to serve them, is drissled with fried garlic and bacon in its oil, this is shown in the photograph.

This is similar to a 'Dim Sum' recipe (chinese snack food). Asian countries influence each other and it's typical to find variations of Lao, Chinese, Khmer and Vietnamese food in Thailand and Thai food in the recipes of its neighbours. These ingredients will make approximately 15 buns/dumplings. You can freeze the bun, simply steam them first, then freeze them, steam them again just before eating.

These are boiled dumplings with pork and spring onion, the strongest taste is the fresh onion taste. They can be served as a starter or as a snack and can be frozen if needed. If you freeze them, they should be cooked from frozen, simply cook them a minute or two longer to allow them to defrost.

Preparation
1. Whip the egg, put into the flour and add the oil.
2. Mix these together and knead them a little to form a dough.
3. Leave the dough for 5 minutes to rest it, this makes it easier to work with.
4. Into a food process, put the pork, add the garlic, the spring onion, the light soy sauce, the salt, pepper, and coriander leaves.
5. Blend until the filling is well mixed.
6. Pinch off small pieces of dough, and roll them on a flat oiled surface into small circles (approx 6cms diameter).
7. Put the meat filling into the middle of the pastry, and fold the pastry over and crimp the edges to form a closed dumpling.
8. Boil a pan of water, drop the dumplings into the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes.

Green rice flakes have a scent to them and coupled with the batter, coconut and banana make for a really delightful and substantial dessert. The inner most centre is banana, followed by a layer of green rice & syrup, followed by an outer coating of batter to hold the dessert together. In the photograph I sliced them in half so you can see inside, but it's normal to serve them whole.

This is a side dish of quails eggs in a spicy sugar-caramel sauce. In Thailand we normally use larger duck or even chicken eggs, but for the best ratio of sauce to egg the smaller quails eggs are perfect.